Obviously
this article started off a very different animal, in which I was going to
discuss all sorts of Magic-al
tidbits, specifically about the incredibly complex and difficult Innistrad limited environment. I do plan on finishing that piece at some
point, but I’ve been asked to address a few other issues first.
If you can’t
tell, Where the Meat Comes From has
been a bit of a flop, which is disappointing, to say the least, since it
involved a tremendous amount of work and had a lot of potential, at least at
first. So, as of Friday, November 4th,
the website has officially closed its doors.
The previous editors have been kind enough to hand me the keys to the
car, so I’ll be using it as my own blog for now. If anyone is interested in submitting
content, you can use the old email address, and I’ll do my best to take a look
at it, but for the most part, this is going to be a one-man show for the time
being.
I don’t have
a publishing schedule anymore, so the updates will likely be more erratic, but
I’ll try and keep posting them on the Battlefield and links on Twitter,
etc.
#MTGOP
Enough about
sad depressing news, let’s talk about how awesome Magic is right now. Except,
wait, that’s a whole barrelful of disappointing news, too. I cannot imagine being a semi-professional player
outside of the United States any more. I
do not believe that it is possible to exaggerate the negative impact of the new
announcements on the world-wide growth of the game.
Having said
that, I need to express my own opinion on the impact of the changes, which is
very different from the professional community at large.
I have been
trying to explain for weeks, if not months, that Magic has changed dramatically in recent years. The biggest point that I would make is that
for someone who was around for the beginning of the game, to see its explosive
growth has been akin to watching your brother’s daughter grow up to be an
international celebrity.
Many, many
people who have very loud voices in the community do not seem to remember that
this game was born in basements, nylon tents, brick cafeterias, and around
kitchen tables. For years, if you didn’t
live in New York or on the East Coast in general, your only outlet for playing Magic was with your friends. The Duelist Convocation existed (I once had a
four digit DC number, sadly, I use my 6 digit DCI number now—and I think they
added some digits in front of my code, although I’m not sure) but that mostly
related to league-style play in comic book stores, and tournaments where the
judge performing rulings was never suspiciously the guy who always managed to
win the event (wait, that’s exactly what happened).
Now, people
who are not involved in gaming at all have friends or significant others who
have or still do play our great game. In
fact, it is not unreasonable to suggest that most of the people that you will
ever meet will have some sort of an idea that Magic exists. Because you
may not see it the same way, I want to emphasize my next point: this is outrageously awesome to me.
I have met
random women in bars that know of Magic,
and Finkelgate has successfully nabbed dates for my friends. The world of 2011 is not the world of 1995,
and I’m not even talking about the clothes (or those depressing hair-styles).
What does
this have to do with the OP changes?
Namely, it
all calls into question the point of the Pro Tour any longer.
The
overwhelming majority of all Magic players
will never sit down in a PTQ. Of those
players who do, only the tiniest percentage ever qualified for a PT in the first
place, and a fraction of those that did so ever played multiple events. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if you are
reading a Magic related article on
the internet, you are probably familiar with the names of almost every single
person affected by the Organized Play changes.
Am I trying
to imply that I am apathetic to their plight?
Not at all. One of the biggest
reasons that I stuck with this game over the almost two decades that I’ve been
playing is because I occasionally got to taste the succulent goodness of the
luscious gravy train basket.
What I am
trying to get at is that it has never made sense to me that Wizards of the
Coast runs the Pro Tour. I wrote an
article in 1999 for the love of all that is good and decent that suggested that
the Pro Tour should be privatized and sponsored. The crux of my argument hinged on the idea
that I saw Wizards moving toward trying to present Magic as timeless—a hilarious point since the game had been around
for six years at that time—and accessible to everyone with the recent dumbing
down of the rules.
The truth,
of course, is that the game is still impossibly complex for many people, even
today, but I do believe that R&D is closer to what I envisioned as their
endgame than ever before. It is
infinitely easier to teach Magic to
someone right now than it has ever been.
Yes, there are complicated elements and odd corner cases, but for the
most part, it is possible and I have taught a friend to play with those sample
decks they give out in stores in about 30 minutes or less, and we will have fun
playing. As much fun as I had in
2003? Probably not, but a damn good time
is had nonetheless for someone whose board game experience was limited to an
unfortunate Sorry! party when she was
twelve and Words with Friends on her
iPhone since.
I think that
it is unlikely that someone can argue the reality that Magic is closer to Chess or Monopoly
than it has ever been, and I think that means the company can continue to move
away from the Pro Tour model of the past towards something with far more Grand
Prix and those type of tournaments, all of which are incomprehensibly more
profitable than PTs.
Where I’d Like to Go
With all
that out of the way, I want to list my dream for the Pro Tour. I’ve tried to keep it as realistic as
possible, using an easily identifiable model for comparison.
1)
Start by selling the Pro Tour to StarCity or a
similar company.
2)
That company runs the tournaments, provides
judges and product, and is responsible for developing marketing, etc.
3)
To pay for these associated costs, sell
tournament sponsorships. This will
require a dedicated sales staff to develop relationships with major
corporations who might be interested in doing so, but the beauty of our game is
that there is an unlimited pool of incredibly talented employees who would give
their left arm to work in a Magic related
field. (Having worked for a major
national corporation for almost five years, I have been involved in
conversations where HR actually brought up Magic
and the ridiculous ease with which WotC can hire employees that most
companies have to pay headhunters to try and attract)
4)
Create a stable environment with tournaments
that run on the same weekends and same times every year. Remember, the Grand Prix can stay with
Wizards, since those no longer provide invitations to the Pro Tour anyway, and
it is possible that the two companies could coordinate scheduling plans since
the new Pro Tour would have a set schedule that Hasbro could schedule around.
a.
I would start with 15 events stretching from May
until November (so that the final Chase for the Championship could end
coordinating with the holiday shopping season, building interest for the brand
and casual players)
b.
For example:
i.
Second Weekend in May: Tournament
ii.
Fourth Weekend in May: Tournament
iii.
Second Weekend in June: Major
iv.
Fourth Weekend in June: Tournament
v.
Second Weekend in July: Tournament
vi.
Fourth Weekend in July: Tournament
vii.
Second Weekend in August: Major
viii.
Fourth Weekend in August: Tournament
ix.
Second Weekend in September: Tournament
x.
Fourth Weekend in September: Tournament
xi.
Second Weekend in October: Start of the “Chase”,
Major
xii.
Fourth Weekend in October: First Cut of the
Chase, Tournament
xiii.
Second Weekend in November: Second Cut of the
Chase, Tournament
xiv.
Third Weekend in November: Third Cut of the
Chase, Tournament
xv.
Fourth Weekend in November: World Championship,
Major
5)
In this system, all tournaments would be open
events with an entry fee except for the Majors, which would invite the top 200
Pro Points holders from each previous “season”, in a style similar to the old
Master Series. The other 100
participants of the Major events would be invited based on recent performance—the
Top 16 from each of the 3 immediately preceding tournaments, with invites
passing down, 40 PTQ slots and 12 sponsor exemptions.
6)
The Pro Point system would be brought back along
with the PPC, to cultivate a professional lifestyle. The PPC would be run by the Tour and paid for
through revenue generated by advertising and the Pro Tour Store.
7)
Notice, too, that this leaves literally dozens
of weekends for WotC to continue to schedule Grand Prix throughout the year,
and coordinates with their own plans for the brand.
8)
The cost of each of the Majors will be fixed at $4M
a.
Broken down approximately to $750K prize money,
$1.25M venue costs (including staff, etc), $2M in plane tickets, PPC expenses,
related costs
i.
Prizes for the Majors would be
1.
$200K for 1st
2.
$100K for 2nd
3.
$50K for 3rd and 4th
4.
$15K for 6-8th
5.
($510K) $8,000 for 9-16th (64,000)
6.
$4,000 for 17th through 32nd (64000)
7.
$2,000 for 33rd through 64th (64000)
8.
$1,000 for 65th through 128th
9.
$200 for 129th through 300th
9)
The feeder tournaments would each cost $250,000
to put on, with a scaling prize pool based on paid entry fees with $50,000
added to the pool
10)
This design packages each Pro Tour Major Event
to sponsors as a less than $3M total investment by a single sponsor (if they
wanted to put on their own event with exclusive signage and branding) with
revenue and advertising generated by the 3 feeder tournaments.
a.
For example, 3M Corporation Sponsors Pro Tour
Duluth, Pro Tour Madison, Pro Tour Omaha, and Pro Tour 3M Championship in
Minneapolis.
11)
If it sounds like a pipe dream because of the
inflated pay outs and costs, keep in mind that Target Corporation spent over
$1B in advertising during fiscal 2010, meaning that the sales staff of the new
Pro Tour would only have to provide enough incentive to convince an ad exec to
allocate 0.3% of their advertising revenue on this promotion.
12)
MLG – an independent gaming tour, has had
continued success with games that are played by far fewer individuals
world-wide than Magic, and they are
still growing, with web presence on ESPN3 and other outlets.
I could go
on and spend even more of my time developing an abstract for a business that is
not likely ever going to include me in its design or execution. I’m not going to. The point is that it could be done, and for
considerably lower revenues than people expect.
I’m sure you have friends like mine, who with limited previous business
experience and no direct capital were able to raise $750,000 to start their own
comic book store.
It is
possible to scale the numbers back even more, I could see a Pro Tour with a $1M
total prize over the course of a year still having success. I put this model together because I think it
fosters an environment most conducive to a real professional lifestyle.
As it seems
WotC is hell-bent on destroying what remains of the Pro Tour we recognize, I
strongly advocating the evolution of the game towards something along these
lines. It may be an exercise in
futility, but I would love to see it come about, and I hope there are enough people
who share my passion that it might someday happen.
Thanks,
(Innistrad limited in the next
article. I promise.)
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